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Monday, November 12, 2012

Microreview [comics]: Rebel Blood

The Meat

Image Comic’s Rebel
Blood, like a classic EC horror tale, ends with an ironic twist -- but I
can’t tell you about it lest I ruin your reading experience. This presents some
difficulty in reviewing it. What’s worse, Rebel
Blood is a zombie story, the least interesting of horror subgenres. There’s
really nothing much that one can do with it: the dead rise and survivors try to
survive. But artist/co-writer Riley Rossmo and co-writer Alex Link manage to actuallydo something with this tired formula. But I can’t tell you about
it.

Rebel Blood’s plot
is pretty thin: Chuck is a troubled father working a firetower deep in the
forrest. When zombies attack, he makes a mad dash to save his family from
zombies, both human and animal. Then the story takes a turn. The end.

But Rebel Blood is
really an artists’ comic and the story’s thinness gives Rossmo an excuse to
deliver impressive artwork. Rossmo draws inspiration from the history of horror
comics: the influence of Al Feldstein and Bernie Wrightson come through his moody
facial characterization and figures. His art also evokes classic European styles.
But Rossmo offsets this clearness with frantic, expressionistic inking --reminiscent
of Eddie Cambell and Mike Dringenberg -- that, along with his moody colors, give
the artwork a modern look.

Rossmo also deserves kudos for avoiding convention in his
portrayal of zombies. His infected are bloated, almost fluid creatures
sprouting tumors, tentacles, and second faces. Additional points are given for
making zombies out of forest animals. The mere idea of a zombie squirrel terrifies
me for reasons that I can’t altogether explain. (Jumping abilities and sharp
buck teeth.)

Rebel Blood’s
creators focus on the psychology of surviving zombie apocalypse, highlighting
the isolation, alienation, and existential fragmentation following the raising
of the dead. It’s not simply a matter of telling
the reader that our hero is losing his mind, but rather showing it. Rossmo and Link do this through the use of alternating
flashbacks/foreshadowing and time-shifting panels as a narrative device to express
our protagonist’s lunacy.

There are some drawbacks to this fragmented storytelling: the constant jumps in time can get confusing,
especially in the early issues. If I had read this monthly on an issue-by-issue
basis, this lack of sequential clarity might have prevented me from following
the series. Reading it in one sitting, however, allowed me to fully appreciate Rebel Blood’s disjointed narrative
structure.

Nevertheless, Rebel
Blood is still a zombie comic. Haven’t we seen enough of these? The Walking Dead has done in comics what
28 Days Later did for film: They both
made any further zombie tales unnecessary. Need I mention the wretched Crossed series?

This one gets a pass and a recommendation. Like Shawn of the Dead got.